Sunday Oct 7 – Brest France

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Happy Birthday to Alex Chinn! Today our oldest grandson is 14.

Today we woke in Baja 508 in Breast France. During the night it had been kind of windy so the channel was bumpy. Also we had further to go than just to Guernsey, so he had to go faster than planned and that also made it bumpier. But we are fine and did not have any seasickness.

We did not have any particular plans for today so it was going to be a fairly quiet day. We went down to the dining room for another sit-down breakfast, and Janet was able to get another of her Eggs Benedict. It was a strange breakfast as people kept leaving and being replaced, but it was fine. We heard about a ship which had recently returned from an Aegean Island cruise where all 5 of their ports were closed and the passengers never got to go ashore anywhere until they got back to England again.

There are no organized tours since this was a pretty impromptu port call, but they did get some representatives from the local tourist center to come on-board and answer questions and give out maps. There is a free shuttlebus because we are actually docked at a commercial pier and we cannot walk around the port. Brest was thoroughly bombed during WW2 since this was a major German installation for maintaining the U-boat fleet. The result is that the city was pretty fully rebuilt after the war and there are no “very old buildings".

Janet decided to stay on the ship and rest for tomorrow’s final port call in Cherbourg. Our excursion there is actually rated as Moderate so she may need to have a reserve of energy built up. Janet stayed in the cabin and watched Princess Bride on the TV while David went to explore in town. It was a bit chilly at only 57 degrees during the afternoon but it was fairly windy all day. The predicted wind was the reason we could not use the lifeboats to shuttle to Guernsey but at least we got to visit somewhere.

David went to the Savoy Dining Room and got a ticket to go on the shuttle and soon afterward got to board the bus. There are 5 stops on the route – start at the ship, go to the aquarium, go to the citadel/fort, go to the center of town, go to the marina, and back to the ship. David rode to the city center and walked around for a while. There was a large market on a wide pedestrian thoroughfare with sidewalk cafes and other shops behind them. So the area was very popular with both us “boat people” and with the locals. You could get fresh produce or fresh seafood, cooked food to carry around and eat clothes, shoes/boots, belts, flowers, even mattresses, and numerous other odds and ends. It was interesting to observe but David didn’t buy anything.

He found the “Eglise de St Louis” which is the church of St Louis. They had just finished Mass so he went in to look around. It is a pretty modern looking church but also really big. If anyone is interested then it is probably well described on Google. Then David walked back down the hill to the fort (stop #2) and waited with others for the next bus back to the ship. We filled it with folks standing in the aisle. At stops #3 and #4 there were very few people who got off, so not everyone could get on to return to the ship and had to wait for the next bus. Anyway, David got to see some of the town, hear some of the French talk, and have a mini-visit while still getting back by 1:30 for a late lunch with Janet.

While he was gone Janet also watched a strange movie called Lady Bird. We went up to the Trident Grill to get her a hot dog and a knockwurst for David – of course we had French fries while here in France. Then we got a little dessert and went back to the cabin.

Janet arranged to exchange some of our Elite non-alcoholic drinks (tonic water and Perrier) for Coca Colas. We probably won’t get them all drunk before we leave the ship, but there is a better chance than what we traded away. We also turned in an application for another set of Future Cruise Credits. Then when we find another trip we’d like to take, it will make it get us some extra credits at that time.

We stayed in the cabin until it was time for the Cocktail Hour in the Skywalker Lounge. Janet has finished the medicine from the Medical Center and now she can have a little alcohol again. We went up at 5:00 and took our certificates with us for a free drink. Janet got a Frozen Strawberry Margarita and David had a Manhattan. Janet had to take hers down to dinner because she hadn’t finished it yet, but that was no problem.

For dinner we all talked about what we did or did not do in Brest. Regardless we felt it was a better decision than going in circles around an island which was experiencing high winds – those circles would probably have been bumpy too. We both had shrimp cocktails as appetizers but David also had a Caesar Salad. For her main course Janet had the appetizer of crabmeat on toasted bread while David had Surf & Turf with prawns. Janet skipped dessert and David had the NY Cheesecake.

After dinner we went back to the cabin instead of seeing the same show we saw 3 nights ago. Instead we watched the “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” movie on the TV. Tomorrow we are supposed to have the excursion which Janet has looked forward to the most of any port, so we want to have a good night’s sleep beforehand. So we will wrap up here and wish you a goodnight.

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